The decision to add former Playboy model Jenny McCarthy to ABC’s The View was unfortunate and potentially dangerous, according to a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“That message she’s giving out has been roundly, roundly disproved time and time again,” MIT professor Seth Mnookin told CNN. “I think it’s a really, really unfortunate and some ways dangerous step that ABC is making.”

McCarthy insists that her son developed autism because of vaccines. She has become a vocal opponent of vaccinations despite scientific evidence and the fact her son might not actually suffer from autism.

“I think what ABC has done here is further legitimatized her views, and those are views that have been shown not only to have absolutely no founding in science, but also to be potentially really dangerous,” Mnookin added.

More than 30 studies have investigated the potential connection between autism and vaccines, but found no evidence of such a link. The only study to have found a link, published in The Lancet in 1998, was later found to be fraudulent.

About the Author

Eric W. Dolan has served as an editor for Raw Story since August 2010,
and is based out of Sacramento, California. He grew up in the suburbs
of Chicago and received a Bachelor of Science from Bradley University.
Eric is also the publisher and editor of the psychology news website PsyPost. You can follow him on
Twitter @ewdolan.